Stories for July 17th 2013

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said on Wednesday the US central bank still expects to start scaling back its massive asset purchase program later this year but left open the option of changing that plan in either direction if the economic outlook shifted.

The high cost of healthcare has created the lucrative phenomenon of medical tourism. An IPK International survey revealed roughly 3% of the world’s population travels to foreign countries for medical treatment, while Patients Beyond Borders, which publishes international medical travel guidebooks, reported the medical tourism industry is a 40 billion dollars a year business.

Chile’s government oil and gas company, ENAP, confirmed a successful experiment with hydraulic fracturing to extract non conventional tight gas at the Arenal Block in Tierra del Fuego, where the company operates with no partners.

With more money in their pockets, millions of Chinese are seeking a richer diet and switching to beef, driving imports to record levels and sending local meat firms abroad to scout for potential acquisition targets among beef farmers and processors.

An extraordinary meeting of the Commission of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) to establish Marine Protected Areas (MPA) in the Ross Sea region and in East Antarctica wrapped up on Tuesday without an agreement after Russia with support from Ukraine blocked the initiative.

Brazilian Foreign minister Antonio Patriota downplayed the significance of the Alliance of the Pacific, the free trade agreement which includes Chile, Peru, Colombia and Mexico, arguing it is not a “real deep integration” as the one proposed by Mercosur.

Argentine Foreign minister Hector Timerman in a piece published in the pro-government Pagina 12 accused Buenos Aires daily Clarin of silencing, distorting, hiding and even lying about events in Argentina and particularly regarding the Malvinas colonial issue and in the March referendum ‘of playing to the Foreign Office strategy’.

Bolivia violated the immunity of a Brazilian Air Force plane which in October 2011 was carrying Defence minister Celso Amorim and with no search warrant proceeded to inspect the aircraft suspecting opposition Senator Roger Pinto might be on board, claimed Brazilian authorities.